A Burlington police officer on Main Street during the Trump rally FILE: MATTHEW THORSEN

On January 7, 2016, thousands of people lined Burlington’s Main Street to get a glimpse of the nation’s would-be president, Donald J. Trump, at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts.Four years later, Trump still hasn’t paid the city’s $8,500 bill for the additional police officers, firefighters and rescue personnel that were required to work that night.Meanwhile, Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign is in full swing. He’s raised more than $200 million since 2017, including a $46 million haul during the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the campaign and finance disclosure filings. Even before he was elected, city officials wanted Trump to pay up — but had little reason to think he would. In June 2016, the city decided against suing the Trump campaign over the bill, saying in a press release that it would not be “cost effective for the City to pursue collections remedies through the courts.”“Paying the invoice remains the right and honorable thing for Mr. Trump to do,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement at the time. Burlington isn’t the only community Trump has stiffed: He owes at least nine other municipalities cash for campaign rally costs, according to a June 2019 report from the Center for Public Integrity.Two former White House denizens have an even older outstanding bill with the Queen City. The Obamas owe Burlington nearly $5,900 for campaign events held during their second term, according to city records. Then-first lady Michelle Obama held two fundraisers in Vermont in June 2011, including one at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain that cost $5,000 per person or $10,000 per couple to attend. The city billed the campaign $2,064 for police services, according to Weinberger spokesperson Olivia LaVecchia.In March 2012, then-president Barack Obama wooed a crowd of 4,400 at the University of Vermont’s Patrick Gymnasium on his reelection tour, raising an estimated $750,000, Seven Days reported then. Burlington police billed $2,816 for the 10 officers who provided traffic control and security; the fire department asked for a $1,015 reimbursement. All bills remain unpaid, LaVecchia said Tuesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), however, did pay his $858 bill for his May 2015 presidential campaign kickoff on the Burlington waterfront, which required four police officers and two firefighter/EMTs. Trump campaign treasurer Bradley Crate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An inquiry to the office of Barack and Michelle Obama was also not immediately returned.

The former owner of Church Street business Good Times Gallery arrested for selling marijuana out of his downtown shop will spend more than two years in federal prison.

Derek Spilman, 45, appeared in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Monday, where he was sentenced to 29 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

He had pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to distribute marijuana, being a drug user in possession of a firearm and witness tampering.

A screen shot of court papers filed with U.S. District Court shows a photo included as an exhibit by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that depicts the distance between Good Times Gallery and Full Tank on Church Street. (Photo: Free Press)

Original arrest in January

Spilman, who was originally arrested in late January, has been detained in federal custody since March. His detention came after a judge found that Spilman violated conditions of release by attempting to intimidate a witness in the case.

The Statehouse lawn was a big draw for some special guests over the weekend hoping to avoid hunting season.

A small herd of deer was captured on video by the Montpelier Police frolicking in the snow. While it is a beautiful sight, police warned in a Facebook post, it’s also a reminder to keep an eye out for deer as you drive.

Deer are mating this time of the year and are facing pressure from hunters pushing them into areas they aren’t usually seen.

Vermont is in the middle of a hemp boom.Hundreds of farmers of all sizes and skills registered with the state about 9,000 acres for hemp in 2019. Most joined the green rush to capitalize on the popularity of cannabidiol-infused everything.Yet all that glitters is not gold. Those who didn’t line up buyers before the season are finding that out the hard way. In fact, some hemp farmers will have to leave crops in the field to rot as demand fails to meet supply, VTDigger.org reports. Bigger companies, including Sunsoil in the Northeast Kingdom, are having no such problems.“I see the mistakes folks are making and I wish I could warn everybody,” Sunsoil cofounder Alejandro Bergad told Digger. “Farmers are going into this without knowledge of where they are going to dry their products in a sanitary environment, and without knowledge of where they are going to fit into the supply chain.”That’s certainly the case when some 1,000 farmers are taking a stab at hemp production this year. And that’s just in Vermont; production is up in other states as well. In Kentucky, for example, farmers planted an estimated 60,000 acres of hemp this year, more than six times Vermont’s output.Here are some other recent cannabis stories we’ve followed:

October 6: As a trade war rages on and CBD becomes all the rage, farmers nationwide are turning to hemp to diversify their crops. An estimated 285,000 acres of hemp was planted across the country this year. [Amelia Nierenberg, the New York Times]

October 7: If you’re hoping to nab that “I Love Weed, LLC” business name in Vermont then you better get on it: “Already, there are 68 active businesses, nonprofits or trademarks with the word ‘cannabis’ in their name, according to filings with the Secretary of State.” [Isaac Fornarola, Burlington Free Press]

October 10: “Though ‘wine mom’ culture has long been the source of many a mommy meme and largely socially acceptable, marijuana-using moms are stepping out of the shadows and proudly extolling the virtues of cannabis.” [Genevieve Shaw Brown, “Good Morning America”]

October 11: People in the Illinois cannabis industry are already bracing for weed shortages when recreational dispensaries open for business in January 2020. [Ally Marotti, Chicago Tribune]

October 11: “Public cannabis companies are facing a capital crunch as investors are recognizing that some firms were vastly overvalued and sweeping regulatory changes may come later than previously hoped.” [Alicia Wallace, CNN Business]

October 12: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) spent two days visiting with members of California’s cannabis industry, raising hopes that he might change his tune on cannabis banking reform. Purveyors of legal pot have pushed for the SAFE Banking Act, which would allow banks to do business with marijuana companies in states that have legalized it. The House passed the bill but it faces an uphill climb in the Senate. [Max A. Cherney, MarketWatch]

October 16: It’s been one year since Canada legalized weed, a source of pride — and frustration — for our neighbor to the north. Legal sales totaled about $1 billion in the 12 months since. But the illicit market persists; buyers spent an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion on black market weed the same year. [Gene Johnson, Elaine Thompson and Rob Gillies, Associated Press]

October 16: The largest marijuana grower in Colorado lost millions of dollars in weed after a snowstorm earlier this month killed half of the farm’s outdoor-grown plants. The crop loss “is expected to send ripples throughout the state’s cannabis supply chain.” [Bart Schaneman, Marijuana Business Daily]Got a story you want to see in our our weekly roundup? Send an email to cannabeat@sevendaysvt.com.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) An investigation is underway after a body was found on the roof of a Burlington building.

Police are not yet providing many details but did confirm a body was found at about 2:30 p.m. on top of the Parkhill Building. That’s the building at the corner of Main Street and South Winooski Avenue where Mr. Mike’s Pizza is located.

No word yet on the person’s identity or how they died. Police would not say if they suspect foul play.

Shortly before 6 p.m., crews used a fire department ladder truck to remove the body from the rooftop.

The building houses several businesses, and people who work there told our Calvin Cutler that the only way to reach the roof is through one door in the center of the building.

Adriana Herrera first came up with the idea for EpicHint, a training and staffing service for cannabis dispensaries, while she was surfing off the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Decompressing after the dissolution of her last startup venture — her second attempt at running her own business — Herrera realized quickly that surfing and #vanlife wasn’t her ultimate calling.

The serial entrepreneur had previously founded FashioningChange, a recommendation engine for sustainable shopping, back in 2011. The company was gaining traction and had some initial support, but it ran into the buzzsaw of Amazon’s product development group, which Herrera claims copied their platform to build a competing product.

Undeterred, Herrera took some of the tools that FashioningChange had developed and morphed them into a business focused on online marketing to shoppers at the point of sale — helping sites like Cooking.com pitch products to people based on what their browsing history revealed about their intent.

By 2017, that business had also run into problems, and Herrera had to shut down the company. She sold her stuff and had headed down to Oaxaca, but kept thinking about the emergent cannabis industry that was taking off back in the U.S.

Herrera had a friend who’d been diagnosed with colon cancer and was taking medicinal marijuana to address side effects from the operation that removed his colon.

“When recovering from the removal of his colon, he’d run out of his homegrown medicine and go to dispensaries where he got the worst service,” Herrera wrote in an email. “He would ask for something for pain, nausea and sleep, and was always recommended the most expensive product or a product that was being promoted. He never got what he needed and had to self advocate for the right product while barely being able to stand.”

Herrera buckled down and did research throughout the course of 2018. She hit up pharmacies first as a customer, asking different “budtenders” for information about the product they were selling. Their answers were… underwhelming, according to Herrera. The next step was to talk to dispensary managers and research the weed industry.

By her own calculations, cannabis companies (including dispensaries and growers) will add roughly 300,000 jobs — most of them starting out at near-minimum-wage salaries of $16 per hour. Meanwhile, current training programs cost between $250 and $7,000.

That disconnect led Herrera to hit on her current business model — selling an annual subscription software for brands and dispensaries that would offer a training program for would-be job applicants. The training would give dispensaries a leg up for experienced hires, increasing sales and ideally reducing turnover that costs the industry as much as $438 million.

“The data is showing an average of a 30% turnover rate in 21 months,” says Herrera. “Looking at turnover and a lot of that comes down to bad hiring.”

The company is on its first eight customers, but counts one undisclosed, large, multi-state dispensary along with a few mom and pop shops.

Herrera also says that the service can reduce bias in hiring. Because dispensaries only hire candidates after they’ve completed the program, any unconscious bias won’t creep into the hiring process, she says.

Applicants interested in a dispensary can enroll in the dispensary “university” and once they complete the curriculum go through a standardized form to apply for the job.

“Our recommendation to run and get the best results is to pre-train, pre-screen and have the graduates unlock the ability to apply.”

Narcan, also known by its generic name naloxone, can reverse an opioid overdose. Seen here as a nasal spray on Jan. 22 2019.

The Vermont Department of Corrections plans to more than double the number of staff carrying the overdose-reversal drug naloxone this week.

The state’s prison system will go from having 284 correctional officers trained in the use of the medication to 774 by Friday, Commissioner Michael Touchette said late last week.

The number includes staff members in the probation and parole departments.

Shift supervisors and health workers in the prison system began carrying naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, years ago, Touchette said. At least five overdoses have occurred in the prisons since July, triggering the expansion.

DOC Commissioner Michael Touchette

Overdoses are uncommon in the prisons, Touchette said, making the five an unusually high number

Earlier this month, two inmates at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton overdosed in a 24 hour period. Touchette said prison officials do not believe those were opioid-related, but naloxone is still administered when an inmate is unresponsive.

Naloxone only works on opioid-related overdoses. But Touchette said the expansion was still valuable.

Putting the naloxone in the hands of the correctional officers will cut down on response time if an overdose happens.

Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, pictured in November 2012.

“This is really about saving lives,” Touchette said.

Another overdose occurred in the Chittenden facility last week, Touchette said. The person had recently been arrested.

Narcan, also known by its generic name naloxone, can reverse an opioid overdose. Seen here as a nasal spray on Jan. 22 2019.

Contraband drugs have long been smuggled into the prisons. Prison staff workers sometime sneak them in, as do some visitors. Drugs can be hidden in the mail as well, Touchette said.

A newly formed political action committee is pushing to get a recreational weed market bill passed into Vermont law early enough in the upcoming legislative session to allow communities to discuss the legislation at Town Meeting Day in March 2020.
Founded by Geoffrey Pizzutillo and Jennifer Dye, the Vermont Growers Association wants state representatives to work off the framework of S.54, a cannabis regulation bill that passed the Senate last session but never came to a vote in the House. Eli Harrington, a lobbyist and cannabis consultant working with the PAC, thinks the group can convince enough lawmakers — and, they hope, Gov. Phil Scott — to get the measure across the finish line.
Harrington admitted that the organization’s proposed timeline is tight but said Town Meeting Day is an important deadline. The group is currently running a policy survey on its site.
“To make this thing work, it’s got to work for each community,” Harrington said. “We think it’s important for people to start the dialogue of, ‘Are we going to allow retail? If so, where? What kind of zoning is required?’”
Some communities are already passing outright bans. The Clarendon selectboard recently voted to prohibit both recreational and medical marijuana dispensaries from opening in town, following in the footsteps of both Newport and Dover. Meanwhile, Killington is considering a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.
The first steps for groups like Harrington’s is to get a recreational sales bill passed. He thinks the Vermont Growers Association can offer valuable input. Harrington pointed to the regulations surrounding Vermont’s medical marijuana dispensaries as an example of what not to do. He called the recreational market a chance to “reset.”
The group emphasizes allowing enough growers to participate in the new business sector so there’s sufficient opportunity — and product — to go around.
“It’s an ambitious timeline, but the plant’s been around for 5,000 years, and it’s been effectively regulated and sold in these United States for quite a while,” Harrington said. “We have the information, we have the capacity and I think we have the will. What’s important is that we don’t screw it up.”
Here are some other cannabis stories we’ve been following:

August 28: About 160,000 people with marijuana convictions in New York State will have those offenses wiped from their records under a new law that recently took effect. [Azi Paybarah, New York Times]

September 5: Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have created a weed breathalyzer. But, as other scientists have found, the technology remains far from ready for use by police departments hoping to detect impairment. [Francesca Paris, National Public Radio]

September 5: Amid the outbreak of a lung illness linked to vaping, the New York Times editorial board called for more research on e-cigarettes. [New York Times]

September 7: Fall River, Mass., Mayor Jasiel Correia was arrested and accused of extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from companies that applied to open marijuana dispensaries in the city. Correia has denied the charges and refused to resign. In fact, he was one of the top two vote getters in a recent primary and will run for reelection November 5. [WCVB]

September 8: More than $4.3 million worth of weed — about 1,000 pounds — washed up on a California beach north of San Diego. [NBC7]

September 9: A Texas high school student passed out and was taken to the hospital after hitting a vape pen right before choir orientation. [Jessica Willey, KTRK-TV]

September 9: Vermont’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that more than three-quarters of young people don’t think marijuana use is harmful, a statistic that concerns state health officials. [Kiernan Brisson, WCAX-TV]

September 10: A new study has found that legalizing marijuana has not necessarily lead to a spike in youth use of the drug: “It is more difficult for teenagers to obtain marijuana as drug dealers are replaced by licensed dispensaries that require proof of age.” [Elizabeth Murray, Burlington Free Press]

September 10: The Washington, D.C., public school system will allow health professionals to administer medical marijuana and CBD on campus for students who use it. [Mark Segraves and Allison Park, NBC4]

September 11: Those “trees” growing in Charlotte and all over Vermont aren’t trees at all. They’re hemp plants! [Ken Picard, Seven Days]

September 11: Cops chasing a couple of guys spotted smoking weed on a Bronx corner ended up finding a bound and beaten man inside the basement of a bodega. Yes, really. [Ben Feuerherd and Ben Cohn, New York Post]

September 12: The third-largest CBD producer in the country is located in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. After just four growing seasons, Sunsoil has 100,000 plants in the ground at farms in Hardwick and Hyde Park. [Dan D’Ambrosio, Burlington Free Press]

September 16: Vermont-grown cannabis quality-tracking software company Trace recently received a patent for its tech, will have an app in the Apple store soon and is expecting to land its first government contract by the end of the year. [Anne Wallace Allen, VTDigger.org]

September 16: About 10 students at Lake Region Union High School in Barton got high — and some got sick — after eating THC-infused chocolate on campus. [Christina Guessferd, WCAX]

September 17: Even ahead of full legalization in Vermont, the town of Clarendon has passed a ban on weed sales and dispensaries. [Matt Leighton, WPTZ-TV]

September 18: Thieves in California broke into a cannabis dispensary and made off with $69,000 worth of weed and related products. [Hope Miller, KCRA-TV]

September 25: Cops in Minnesota busted a 22-year-old who had 77,000 vape cartridges that were loaded with a combined 185 pounds of THC. [Paul Walsh, the Star Tribune]

October 2: Vermont’s five medical marijuana dispensaries, which are regulated by a division of the state’s Department of Public Safety, can prevent the release to the public of any information about them. [Sasha Goldstein, Seven Days]

October 2: A Kentucky-based hemp company that purchased a Middlebury processing facility in 2018 has pulled out of Vermont. [Sasha Goldstein, Seven Days]

October 3: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been more than 1,000 reported cases of a severe lung disease related to vaping. Eighteen people have died in 15 states. As of October 1, officials have reported cases in 48 U.S. states. At least three nonfatal case have been reported in Vermont, though several possible cases are under investigation. [CDC.gov]

October 4: Here’s some satire for you to round out this Cannabis Catch-Up: “Dealer.com Receptionist Tired of Explaining That They Are Not That Kind of Dealer.” [The Winooski]

The Ridin’ High skateboard shop at the corner of Battery and Pearl streets in Burlington seen on Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. (Photo: JOEL BAIRD/FREE PRESS)

Vermont legalized marijuana on July 1, 2018, but the plant continues to cause legal problems for some businesses who test the limits of the law.

There’s no legal market for marijuana, meaning that consumers must grow their own plants or find someone to share a small amount as a gift. Outside of the tightly-regulated medical marijuana system in Vermont, there’s no legal way to buy or sell the drug.

The owners of Ridin’ High Skate shop, the colorful building on the corner of Pearl Street and Battery Street in Burlington, were arrested this week on charges that they grew marijuana at their home in Underhill and sold it at the shop.

John Van Hazinga and Samantha Steady are facing charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and edible products infused with delta-9 THC, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Van Hazinga and Steady pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, though in Vermont, U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan has focused her office’s resources on heroin and drug trafficking rather than prosecuting marijuana possession.

Nolan said in a statement about the Ridin’ High case that “open and notorious trafficking of marijuana will not be tolerated.”

“Those who deal this drug and have prior criminal records, those who deal it to children or in their presence, those who engage in violence while dealing it, those who deal it for high profit, and those who deal it in areas of high commercial foot-traffic should expect to receive heightened attention from the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Nolan said.

Good Times Gallery

Nolan’s office brought marijuana charges against the owner of a store on Burlington’s busiest shopping street in January 2019.

The federal case alleged that Derek Spilman sold marijuana and edibles out of his store, Good Times Gallery, on Church Street across from City Hall. Spilman pleaded not guilty to the marijuana charges and related firearms charges, and the case is ongoing.

A screen shot of court papers filed with U.S. District Court shows a photo included as an exhibit by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that depicts the distance between Good Times Gallery and Full Tank on Church Street. (Photo: Free Press)

‘Delivery’ businesses

Online advertisements quieted down after Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced the businesses were breaking state law.

Pete’s Greens

An organic vegetable farm in Craftsbury discovered earlier this year that at least one of their hundreds of “hemp” plants was actually marijuana, with a high level of THC.

Pete’s Greens received the seedlings from Champlain Valley Dispensary, the state’s largest medical marijuana business. Farmers are allowed to grow hemp after registering with state regulators.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture tested two samples from the farm, including one that tested for high levels of THC. The story was first uncovered by the cannabis advocacy website Heady Vermont.

The Vermont Statehouse

Vermont’s most stately building briefly became the site of a cannabis grow this year.

Capitol police discovered 34 cannabis plants among the flower beds in front of the Statehouse in June. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Romei told the Associated Press that the plants had not been tested for THC content to determine whether they were marijuana or hemp.